Huntington Beach is located in California. Southern California welcomed cooler temperatures and spotty rain Saturday as a tropical storm waned and helped put an end to a heat wave that almost overwhelmed the state's electrical grid.
There was a chance of storms in the Los Angeles region on Saturday. John Dumas of the National Weather Service said that after Hurricane Kay made landfall in Mexico, it quickly became a tropical storm and then a tropical depression before it dissipated.
The worst of it is over. Dumas replied yes.
In Southern California, cooler temperatures and a little bit of rain gave firefighters a break from battling the massive Fairview Fire about 75 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
More than 10,000 homes and other structures have been threatened by the fire. Firefighters expect to have full containment on Monday.
There is a chance for lightning in the Northern Sierra on Sunday and the communities of Northern California are at risk for a heat wave. More than 5,000 structures in Placer and El Dorado counties were threatened by the Mosquito Fire in the foothills east of Sacramento.
The Cal Fire battalion chief said that there was not a drop in fire activity.
The heat wave in the LA area is expected to end Saturday. There was a potential for coastal flooding because of high surf, and there was a flood watch in the mountains that had been burned by the fires.
In Southern California's coastal cities, warning signs were posted and residents were given bags of sand. There was some flooding in the parking lot of the beach. More than half of the customers who lost power in Los Angeles were restored by the afternoon.
Low-lying coastal areas saw less than an inch of rain while mountain communities east of San Diego got several inches.
In Orange County's Huntington Beach, it was hot, humid and rainy on Saturday as a group of friends played disc golf. After a week of heat and humidity, a midday breeze made it easier to play.
French sent a disc through the park, saying it had been a wild week of weather. You have to live your life regardless of what the weather is like.
One of the hottest and longest heat waves on record has already happened in September. More than 50 million people were under heat warnings and advisories across the region this week.
The capital of California broke a 97-year-old record on Tuesday with a temperature of 116 degrees. The state set a record for power consumption on Tuesday as air conditioners whirred amid the heat and authorities nearly implemented rolling blackouts when the electrical grid capacity was at its breaking point.
Climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will make weather more extreme and destructive in the future, according to scientists. California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history in the last five years.
The rest of the west has not been spared. As the challenge of dry and windy conditions continued in the region, there were 18 large fires burning in Oregon and Washington. According to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, there are over a thousand people on the ground fighting the fires in the two states.
California firefighters said Saturday that they have been unable to corral any part of the Mosquito Fire, which has led to the voluntary departure of some communities.
Jonathan Richards, a church pastor, told the San Francisco Chronicle he moved to Georgetown a year and a half ago aware of the fires, but didn't want to think about them. He left behind nine chickens because he didn't have a way to get them from one place to another.
He said that you don't dream that it'll find your area of paradise.
The fire has caused a lot of smoke. People were urged to stay indoors. The Tour de Tahoe was canceled because of the smoke from the fire, which is more than 50 miles from the lake. The ride was canceled last year because of smoke from the Angora fire.
The cause of the fire was still being investigated. Pacific Gas & Electric said electrical activity took place close to the report of the fire.
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The Associated Press journalists who contributed to this report were Julie Walker in New York, Noah Berger in California, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Rachel La Corte in Washington.
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